1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adhesively joined pipe connection, comprising a female pipe part and a male pipe part interconnected by means of a thermosetting adhesive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to join fiber reinforced, and more particularly glass fiber reinforced, plastic pipes, use is made in the prior art particularly of adhesively joined pipe connections, an adhesive being provided between the inside of the female pipe part and the outside of the male pipe part to provide a good sealing connection. A drawback is that the adhesive used sets slowly at normal temperatures, so that a very long time is necessary before the adhered pipe connection can be subjected to the influence of the fluids conveyed through these pipes.
Another drawback is that the quality of the adhesive joint in pipe connections adhesively joined in this way, frequently leaves much to be desired, when normal ambient temperatures are used, so that leakages may occur in the course of time. When pipe parts of this kind are used particularly for conveying fluids at higher temperature, e.g. fluids used for heating purposes, this is a great disadvantage.
The only possibility of obviating these disadvantages is to supply external heat to the site where the thermosetting adhesive is situated.
When female and male pipe parts are used which are provided with a thermally insulating layer to their ends, end portions of the thermally insulating layer upon the outer side of the female pipe part must necessarily be removed in order to install a heating element around the receiving part of the female pipe part in order to heat the thermosetting adhesive, or else the receiving part of the female pipe part must be made without a thermally insulating layer in the actual production process. Apart from the associated expenses, this is very disadvantageous, since after the adhesively joined pipe connection has been made the space between the insulating layer on the female pipe part and on the male pipe part has to be filled by foaming a foamable plastic composition, and this entails laborious and labor-intensive operations. In addition, a heating element continually has to be installed and then removed again.